Case Study: Custom Marketing Services

Custom Marketing Services

This case study is on a custom marking solution United Mail implemented while partnering with a digital agency. We used several services to create a very successful direct mail marketing campaign.

The Company

This ISP was founded in 1995, with the goal of closing gaps in broadband Internet connectivity in 34 rural Ohio counties. They have a history of excellence in customer service and are a community anchor for providing rural residential and business internet services. Their project to connect the internet in all of these rural counties covered 1,960 miles.

The Project

The ISP was awarded $66 million to run fiber-optic cables from its main network to anchor points within the 34 counties. However, they needed to pay back part of this loan – and quickly. When they began this project, they realized they didn’t have updated data. They wanted to target 67,000 businesses in the region, including everything from healthcare to higher education. They wanted to demonstrate why these prospective companies should choose this ISP for their internet service, and show the map of where the target company was in relation to the internet fiber line. They needed the companies to be within 1 mile of the fiber optic line, or they would risk these businesses not receiving the best available internet coverage.

The Solution

United Mail worked with a Louisville agency to come up with a unique solution to this problem. We validated the accuracy of the demographics on these prospective companies in an effort to prevent wasted time and money. We created a Personalized URL (PURL) to send to these prospective businesses which showed the map of where the companies were in relation to the fiber optic line, a video that explained a little bit about this ISP, an application that tested the current internet speed to the speed that they could have with the ISP, and a prepopulated form that allowed them to request more information. We used variable data print (VDP) to personalize each piece with the unique pURL and prospective company information. The campaign included four unique designs and formats to help tell the story of the ISP to each of the prospective companies. We provided a data file to the sales team at the ISP, so that, at any time, they could pull up a business to see its demographics, such as employee’s size, sales volume, private vs. public, branch vs. headquarters, and much more.

The Results

The ISP in rural Ohio met their goal for recruiting these targeted businesses. They had a good response rate to their PURLs, and all of the businesses that they were providing internet service to were able to get good internet coverage because of the accurate targeting data. The sales team were able to make efficient use of their time by organizing their sales calls, and arming themselves with useful information when going into a meeting with a business prospect. The ISP is well on their way to connecting Appalachia.